3 years down, a bit to go: PhD update

Today marks the end of my third year on my PhD journey! I have spent the last three years of living in London, finding new and better ways to lose time on the internet instead of getting real work done. Since my last update, lots has happened!

I realized I had no money left in my savings (see this real-talk PhD finance post). So, I got a part-time job! I then spent the ensuing 8 months only working all the time, running from one work to the other work and back again. However, I have now extricated myself from said part-time job in order to strap in and single-mindedly focus on getting this Ph-Done!

Looking back, I realize I have actually done a few things this past year.

4. Other things

I co-supervised two masters students who successfully completed their thesis projects. I also got to take on more lecturing, which is something I enjoy a great deal! I am also collaborating on a few more projects which are tres exciting, so I can’t wait to see what they turn into. I have also been trying to up my epi skill set. Accordingly, I spent a week in Tuscany learning Bayesian statistics (and eating gelato).

What is next?

I am finalizing my last analysis, so the only thing I have left to do is ALL THE WRITING. I have set an ambitious schedule so that I will submit at the end of 2018, so basically, I need to type every word that I know and then somehow organize it into a cohesive story.

I know what needs to get done between now and having a bound book of my work that I can gold-emboss so it will look pretty gathering dust, but unfortunately, far too many days look like this…

Alternately, I spend my time on fake tasks that will TOTALLY save me time in the long run, like setting up perfect templates for documents and charts… (spoiler: they definitely never save time and are rarely necessary).

If you don’t hear from me for a few months, I am probably typing whilst sweating/crying/mainlining coffee.